Another day, another bad-tempered debate between two diametrically opposed politicians on immigration. This morning’s ding-dong on Radio 4 between Ukip’s Paul Nuttall and Labour’s Mike Gapes fell into the category of Debates That Won’t Change Anyone’s Mind But Will Make Them Grumpy Before 9am – a modern-day Sisyphean punishment.
The pair were discussing Ukip’s European elections, which in case you decided to take Easter off from being habitually outraged, are below:
Nuttall was arguing that his party was on the side of the British people on this issue and that the posters were simply presenting the facts. Unfortunately, his party did choose one industry facing a shortage of skilled workers – construction – for one of the posters, which has added grist to the mill of his critics who argue that immigration is helping build Britain, not destroy it (but it’s worth reading a column Fraser wrote a little while back on how politicians rely on immigration partly because they’ve failed to construct decent welfare and education systems).
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